Wednesday at Long Point (5/13/05)

We got up at 5:30 as planned, went out to the highway for bait, and had fishing lines in the water by 6:30.  Joe caught a nice speckled trout right away, and we all caught something within the first half hour.  John had a hot day of pinfish.  We moved around a little, saw another manatee, and kept catching fish.  We eventually ended up on the back side of the island across the bridge from our campsite, and Bridgette and Andrew waded out to get picked up.  They had seen a turtle on the island, and Andrew even got to pet it.  He mostly wanted to go back to the turtle, forget about fishing!

We probably caught 50 fish today, John probably caught 30 pinfish by himself.  But we added to our specie collection:  Joe caught several speckled trout, we caught puffer fish, Bridgette (who didn't get to fish very long) caught a little sand trout, John caught a lizard fish (it's nice to have marine biologists available to identify the fish).  John figures we've caught 10 different species of fish.  Still waiting for the big ones, though.

puffer fish all puffed up

side view of puffer fish

jack crevalle fish

 

John was on the pinfish

Joe's speckled trout

 But the big excitement of the morning was when I hooked a sheepshead fish  -- which is what Bridgette is doing her research project on.  Unfortunately, it has teeth and cut my line so I didn't get it in the boat (I would have been the real hero of the day if I had landed it).  But it was like a Japanese fire drill for a while, Bridgete shouting to get it in, either John or Bridgette getting the net (not quickly enough), me trying to reel it in.  I was VERY DISAPPOINTED when it broke my line.

A big turtle swam right under the boat, and we saw dolphins again.  We came in off the water about 10:30, and headed up to the restaurant for lunch when they got the boat unloaded.  Then we all had a little rest.  Andrew woke up pulling at his ear, so we headed into town to the grocery store to get some eardrops for him.  Andrew plopped down in front of the book rack and had to have a book read to him before we left.  For him, the book rack is like a candy store -- his favorite place.

On the way back they decided to go to a museum, so they dropped me off at the campground to wait for Mike and Lisa Sullivan, and they visited the turtle museum just up the road.

Mike and Lisa got there about 5:00 and 5:30.  Lisa had worked in Sebastian that day so they drove over separately.  We had dinner together and walked down to the boat ramp, across the bridge to the island.  We had a fun visit with them.

Today is the anniversary of my sister's passing, 13 years ago.  Joy was a real joy.  We all miss her.   May she rest in peace.